Press release

Japan produce second win in Pool G, defeat Korea 3-0

Japan celebrate during their victory over Korea in Pool G in Lima

Lima, Peru, July 27, 2011 - In the first Pool G match played Wednesday at the FIVB Volleyball Women´s Junior World Championship Peru 2011, Japan beat Korea 3-0 (25-20, 25-13, 24-7) in 66 minutes. This was the third match of Pool G at the Eduardo Dibos Gymnasium in Lima.

Fumika Moriya scored 16 points as Japan's top scorer, next to Mari Horikawa's 12 points. Three players from Korea scored team-high seven points in Seung-Ju Pyo, Eon-Hye Kim and Ji-Soo Kim. Japan held a 6-1 margin in service aces and 6-3 advantage in blocks while Korea committed 18 errors in the match.

The first set started with Japan´s serves and digs leading to points. Korea tried to keep the ball with them, but their block was too weak. Japan's Azusa Futami (two points in the set) had a stronger serve than the Korea service reception and block, which insured the difference of four points at the second technical time out. The point difference started to grow and the second technical time out came to 16-10 in favor of Japan. The top difference in this set was for seven straight points thanks to Japan's dig. Korea tried to improve their digs and the score difference began to be shrink (20-18). Japan coach Yasuhiro Fukuda asked for the second time out and Japan recovered the ball thanks to Mari Horikawa´s spike (four points in the set). Korea´s blocking mistake of Yeon-Gyeong Shin defined the set in favor of Japan to 25-20 in 25 minutes.

The second set had a tough beginning for Japan, but they improved the spike and the block. The match was tight, but Korea missed points because of mistakes in the block. The first technical time out came at 8-6 in favor of Japan. Korea's block started to decrease and Japan took advantage of it. The first technical time out came to 16-10 thanks to Horikawa´s serve. The Korean block could not resist too much and Japan´s spike defeated Korea 25-13 (the biggest different in the match) in 22 minutes, thanks to Saori Kaneko.

The beginning of the third set was for Japan. Korea's block and reception did not work. The first technical time out was for Japan at 8-2, thanks to Fumika Moriya´s block (five points in thes set). Korea tried to improve their technique, but scored two points between second technical time out leading to a 16-4 margin. The point difference increased to 13 and Korea asked for the second time out. This time it did not work and the set reached the largest difference at 16 points (24-7). The key for Japan's success was Shiori Murata´s block (one point in the set). The set ended 25-9 in 19 minutes.